AS PEOPLE mingled at the end of a joint Liverpool and Manchester event in Cannes on Tuesday morning, Liverpool Mayor Joe Anderson found himself face to face with Tim Heatley, director of Manchester-based developer Capital & Centric.

Scouser Joe and Salford lad Tim greeted each other like old friends, providing a perfect example of one of the benefits of what had been discussed for the previous hour.

The event took place at the MIPIM property and investment expo in the French Riviera where Liverpool and Manchester have rolled up with the two biggest city delegations.

The discussion - ‘Unlocking the investment potential of Liverpool and Manchester’ - was in front of an invited audience of business people from both cities and was a repeat of a similar event last year.

Sir Howard appeared to be in a buoyant mood - and that is hardly surprising. Just a few weeks ago the Manchester city region had secured a devolution deal with the Government which will see it take control of its £6bn health and social care budget.

In times gone by, a leader from Liverpool may have brooded and bristled at such news but Mayor Anderson says the move towards greater devolution was good news for Merseyside, too, and he called for a continuance of the increased co-operation between the two traditional rivals that has been happening in recent times.

The Mayor told the audience: “This is great news for Manchester - it shows that devolution for the core cities is definitely the right way to go. Whether or not the Northern Powerhouse is the right way forward, the fact remains that Manchester and Liverpool will continue to work together.

“Collaboration and co-operation is the right model for us.”

However, Mayor Anderson also spoke of his frustration that recent infighting between the six local authorities of the Liverpool city region was holding back Merseyside’s efforts to strike devolution deals similar to those enjoyed by Manchester.

Certainly there is a great deal more harmony between Greater Manchester’s 10 metropolitan boroughs than there is among Liverpool, Knowsley, Wirral, Sefton, St Helens and Halton.

The GM councils have been working closely for longer, perhaps helped by the joint ownership of Manchester Airport, a major economic driver for the region.

Watch a video with Sean Beech of Deloitte, leader of Liverpool's private sector party at MIPIM

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In January there was a very public falling out between Joe Anderson and the leader of Wirral council, Phil Davies, who also leads the Liverpool city region super-cabinet.

The fall-out then centred around whether or not there should be a public referendum on an elected city region mayor.

This week, Mayor Anderson described the behaviour of his fellow council leaders as “divisive” and claimed they lacked “vision”.

However, if his impromptu meeting with Tim Heatley was anything to go by then his relationship with the private sector is going much better.

Capital & Centric has already completed a number of commercial property projects in Liverpool and is currently on-site with three, including the 40,000 sq ft refurbishment of an office building in Tithebarn Street in the city centre now renamed The Tempest.

It is also involved in another commercial scheme in Birkenhead.

In an interview with ECHO Business in Cannes, Mr Heatley said the company was spending around £1m a week at six North West construction sites.

He said a smooth relationship with local authority leaders was essential for the successful delivery of their projects.

This is particularly true in Liverpool where close co-operation with the council was essential to securing European gap funding for its schemes.

Mr Heatley said: “For a while you always thought of Liverpool and Manchester as like a mum and dad who weren’t getting on.

“And for us as a business having a foot in both camps it was also a little bit awkward, really.

“What has been nice over the past 12 months is that people have realised that with a partnership approach it can be a real win-win.

“Now the two cities can learn from each other. We can say to Manchester ‘look, Liverpool are doing that really well’ and vice-versa. We also are noticing that some of the companies that are occupying our space are now thinking much bigger in terms of where they operate and how they operate in a much more fluid way.

“That is important because they want to have a presence in both cities, and having a joined-up approach makes that easier.

“Our history with Liverpool only goes back about three or four years so we have always found the city has an ‘open door let’s do business’ attitude.

“That is not to say they are a soft touch - it has to be the right kind of development.”

Liverpool has its biggest presence at MIPIM this year with 30 private sector companies and organisations chipping in to fund the delegation.

Earlier this week Joe Anderson revealed he had lined up meetings with a number of large companies interested in investing in the Liverpool city region.